Letters to the Editor
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You *did* get the sarcasm, right?
Just making sure that you understood the tone of the Weingarten piece, because you don't mention it in your description. You make him sound like a raving loon who actually believes the things he lists at the end of the piece. Clearly he does not.
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I really needed that!
Thanks for the link. To think that I might have missed that column otherwise, while searching for interesting political news. ;~)
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Yes, yes. It's a joke.
Warning: Do not take the Weingarten column as fact. There is no evidence that the Vice President is, or has ever been, the angel of darkness, in the biblical sense. Not all bloggers "rant in their underpants." (I am wearing slacks right now.) And the venerable Miami Herald is demonstrably heavier than a sycamore leaf. As for Anderson Cooper, only time will tell.
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A thrill for the grads, no doubt
Yeah...when you're going to make a joke about a dead comedian, you might consider when the referenced event occurred. 26 years ago. Did the parents get it? Sure. But come on. The students ostensibly being addressed listened to these odd remarks, looked at each other, looked at the dais, and muttered, "Freak."
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Thank You, Mr. Scherer ...
That was the best link in more than a WEEK!!
P.S. Now go take off those slacks of yours ... it'll be so liberating for you that I bet you start ranting in your next blog.
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Where to start?
I feel like I need to read Weingarten's column a few more times to figure out just what it is that he's saying.
Obviously most of it is tongue-in-cheek, as the best commencement speeches (indeed, the best anything speeches) are. Would that the President's were.
Interesting Points:
- "...the public appears more and more willing to receive its "news" online from nincompoops ranting in their underpants." I presume he means bloggers, and while he's clearly right about some, I suggest he get out into the online world more. From where I'm sitting, the internet is just about the only place to get real news today. And it's truly interactive; right here in War Room yesterday Michael Scherer was able to read a reader's comment about his "May's honor roll of dead soldiers" post and respond to it on the same day. Call me crazy, but in my opinion that's a great advance in journalism. If Weingarten is reading "nincompoops ranting in their underpants," I'd suggest he select his blogs with more care.
- "Vitally important accountability journalism is still being practiced by fearless men and women who question authority and speak truth to power, right up until the time power incarcerates them. The public doesn't seem to care." I don't think I even need to characterize this one. Has Weingarten been to the White House press briefing lately? Is the behavior of the press corps there what he considers "question[ing] authority" and "speak[ing] truth to power? The public may not seem to care, Gene, but it's the press corps' worthless "reporting" they don't care about. They (we) care plenty about the news, which is why they're turning more and more to the "nincompoops ranting in their underpants". They're the ones questioning authority and speaking truth to power, Gene. And they confirm their news with real sources, not the White House press office.
- "We columnists should know better, inasmuch as we are the only people in America intelligent and principled enough to tell people what to think and how to behave." What?!! Okay, you're right. Journalists are the only people in America who can tell us how to believe the lies of this administration and how to grovel before it. Left to our own devices, we might think crazy things like we were conned into going to war in Iraq, or do crazy things like demand that our Constitutional rights be protected from the ravening wolves in the NSA.
Maybe I should just relax. Maybe Weingarten's whole speech was meant as satire and I'm just too humorless to pick up on it. I doubt it, though. The attitudes Weingarten displays are exactly what you'd expect from the toadies in the mainstream press. If Weingarten is really interested in the reasons for the waning relevancy of print journalism he might want to spend some time reflecting on how completely it has abandoned its mission. Not doing what you're supposed to do, what you're paid to do, is just about the quickest path to irrelevancy I can think of.
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Context is Everything
While I am tempted to give a free pass to anyone who says Chenney is Satan, even in jest, I must say I found the overall thrust of the piece in bad taste. It is not so much the content, as the tone. It read like he was auditoning for a position on the Colbert Report. I see that it was an excerp, and I can only hope that there was some actual serious words, along with something vaguly resembling hope and inspiration to these graduates, who may be able to change journalism for the better if they are not completely overcome by cynicism and despair prior to their first job interview. As presented though, is read as obligatory humerous opening remark, after obligatory opening remark. Personally, I much prefer the relentless honest and open call to arms of Bill Moyers’ speech to the National Conference for Media Reform - http://www.freepress.net/news/8120
By the way, I am curiose: How many Salon staffers write their articles in their underwear?
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Wow, that was really great!
And I thought times were tough when I graduated from J-school 20 years ago!
Speaking of the state of "journalism," something struck me last week that I can't quite get over. I was listening to Newsweek's Michael Isikoff on a radio talk show the other morning, and he said something in passing that I find extremely revealing, very depressing and highly maddening. He was commenting on the Abramoff scandal, and its potential scope and depth, and he prefaced one of his points with, "Normally I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but..."
So my question to him is, "Why the hell not?" Dude, you're a fucking JOURNALIST! It's your JOB to be a conspiracy theorist. In my mind, the job of a journalist is more like that of a prosecutor, rather than a jurist. And a lot of these guys in the media are acting like defense attorneys, which is the LAST thing they should be doing. There are no checks and balances in our system of government at the moment, so the media is our last hope, and last line of defense. And they're worrying about whether they're being seen as "conspiracy theorists," or not. Man, we are so fucking doomed..... You can easily make the point that had the Bush Administration been "conspiracy theorists," they could have prevented the 9-11 attacks. But no. Instead you have Condi "no one imagined they would EVER fly planes into the twin towers" Rice and the rest of those idiots.